Early life

Marcus Hopson was born on July 18, 1985 in Los Angeles, and was raised in the Panorama City neighborhood of Los Angeles.[1] He attended James Monroe High School, where he was placed into special educational classes.[3] Hopsin has been an avid skateboarder since the age of twelve, as many of his music videos feature him skateboarding.[4] He started rapping at sixteen years old, and took his hobby more seriously by 2003 which is the year the majority of the tracks from Hopsin's self-produced album Emurge were recorded.[5] He dropped out of high school during his senior year in 2004 to pursue a career in music, purchased a microphone, and installed FL Studio (known as FruityLoops at the time) on his computer.[3] While starting his music career, Hopsin decided to sport colored eye contacts while performing in his music videos. He stated that he used the contacts to give himself a memorable appearance and differentiate himself from other African American rappers with the cliché appearance.[6] He credits Eminem as the rapper that initially got him interested into hip hop music.[7]

Music career

2007–2009: Struggle with Ruthless Records and beginning of Funk Volume

Hopsin had initially signed with Ruthless Records in 2007. He was originally hailed as one of driving forces behind attempting to bring Ruthless Records back to previous glory.[8] Hopsin's debut single "Pans In the Kitchen" was released on May 27, 2008.[9] The album was set to be self-produced by Hopsin and feature no collaborations with other artists.[8] However his debut album, Gazing at the Moonlight was not released until October 27, 2009, with little to no promotion.[10] Shortly after the album's release, Hopsin sought his release from Ruthless Records due to lack of financial compensation, artist support, and promotion.[11] Shortly before the departure from Ruthless Records, Hopsin founded his own independent label, Funk Volume, with Damien Ritter. SwizZz, Damien Ritter's younger brother and a former classmate of Hopsin at Monroe High, was the first artist to be signed to Funk Volume. Shortly after launching Funk Volume, both Hopsin and SwizZz released a collaborative mixtape titled Haywire in June 2009 to promote the label.[12] Funk Volume originally wanted to sell it for retail sale, but were unable to due to Hopsin still being contracted by Ruthless Records at the time.[13] On mixtape website DatPiff, it has been certified Gold for being downloaded over 100,000 times and it later made available for purchase for digital download via iTunes and Amazon.com.

2010–2011: Success with Funk Volume

Hopsin released "Nocturnal Rainbows" as the first single off of his upcoming second album Raw on August 1, 2010.[14] On October 8, 2010, Hopsin released a music video for the song "Sag My Pants", the second single off Raw on YouTube. The video became a YouTube success and currently has over 24 million views.[15] In the song Hopsin pokes fun and disses other rappers such as Lil Wayne, Drake, Soulja Boy, Lupe Fiasco, Rick Ross and Tomica Wright, the owner of Ruthless Records. Hopsin's second album, Raw, was released on November 19, 2010. In March 2011, Hopsin went a two-month nationwide tour to promote Raw with the I Am RAW tour.[16]

In December 2012, Hopsin had hinted on his Facebook and Twitter pages that he and Travis Barker are working on a project together, further details on the project were yet to be released. However, in late December, Travis Barker would say they are working on a collaboration EP which would be released in 2013.[30][31] Then on February 5, 2012 Hopsin would say all the production had been finished for the EP.[32] On January 24, 2013 Funk Volume released a music video featuring the entire roster; Hopsin, Dizzy Wright, SwiZzZ, Jarren Benton and DJ Hoppa for a song titled "Funk Volume 2013."[33] On March 30, 2013 performed at the 2013 Paid Dues festival in San Bernardino, California.[34]

On July 18, 2013, Hopsin released "Ill Mind Six: Old Friend" on his YouTube channel. At the end of the video, the release date for Knock Madness was confirmed as November 26, 2013.[26] He later said that the song is not the sixth song in the "Ill Mind of Hopsin" series, and is instead a track on Knock Madness titled "Old Friend".[35]Knock Madness was released on November 26, 2013 by Funk Volume and debuted at number 76 on the Billboard 200 with first-week sales of 12,000 copies. The album contains guest appearances from SwizZz, Dizzy Wright, Jarren Benton and Tech N9ne along with being production primarily by Hopsin himself. It was also supported by the singles "Hop Is Back" and "Rip Your Heart Out". Following the Knock Madness tour beginning in December 2013, Hopsin planned to go on a hiatus also saying, "When I take a break, I am still going to be making music, I am [just] not going to be out publicly promoting shit. I am just going to be in my own house, doing whatever the fuck I want to do. Finding myself as a person."[36]

On July 1, 2014, Hopsin posted a picture of his mugshot stating that he would be releasing "Ill Mind of Hopsin 7" on July 18, 2014. He then stated that it was for sure the realest song he has ever wrote in his career.[37][38] The video for "Ill Mind of Hopsin 7" had gotten over 1 million YouTube views in a day. On "Ill Mind of Hopsin 7", Hopsin lyrically shares his religious beliefs, his views on other religious beliefs and the connections between religion, history and governance.

Hopsin had revealed on his instagram that he'd be retiring from rap and moving to Australia. However on December 25, 2014, Hopsin shared a video on his YouTube channel called "The REAL reason Hopsin left the music industry" with label mate Jarren Benton inspired by the film Dumb and Dumber To which stated that he was not quitting rap and it was all a joke, also revealing that he will be releasing a new album called Pound Syndrome in 2015.[39][40][41][42]

In July 2011 Hopsin released "Ill Mind of Hopsin 4" which in the second verse he disses Tyler, the Creator of the Los Angeles hip hop collective, Odd Future and his "Yonkers" music video.[17] Hopsin said that he hates Odd Future's music, noting its negativity and "random" lyrical content and criticizing the group's production values.[43] Tyler responded via Formspring, stating that although "[Hopsin] can rap," Tyler felt that Hopsin was "bitter" and attempting to "get a name" by dissing Tyler and Odd Future.[44] Hopsin later said he did not have a beef with Tyler.[45]

Soulja Boy

Hopsin's feud with Soulja Boy dates back to Hopsin's single "Sag My Pants", in which he disses Soulja. In late 2011 Soulja Boy called Hopsin "dope" but said that he wouldn't bother dissing him until Hopsin got more known.[46] On August 25, 2012, Soulja Boy made controversial comments towards Hopsin on one of his webcam chats with his fans when Soulja stated "Fuck Hopsin. I'm about to go in the studio and record this Hopsin diss real quick". Way then said "That nigga’s a bitch; fuck that bitch ass nigga."[46] Two days later on August 27, 2012 Hopsin and Soulja confronted each other on Tinychat where Hopsin goaded Soulja into dissing him.[47] On September 3, 2012, Soulja released a Hopsin diss entitled "That Nigga Not Me", to which Hopsin has not responded.[48] In an interview with Tim Westwood following that diss, Hopsin put down the diss song as horrible and said the only rapper he has legitimate beef with is Soulja Boy. He also said he is contemplating "smashing the hell out of Soulja's career."[49]

Orlando arrest

On August 25, 2012, Hopsin was scheduled to perform at Club 57 West, a popular night club located in Orlando, Florida. At the last minute, the club promoters chose to pull the last opening act, causing a verbal altercation between the club promoters and the artist's entourage. Some witnesses claim Hopsin tried to settle the argument verbally, while Hopsin claims he tried to defuse a fight outside of the club on his way to 7-Eleven (without indicating whether this was the same conflict, or something unrelated). At one point, Hopsin even offered 15 minutes of his own set to help find a solution to the problem.[50] Hopsin was detained shortly thereafter once police responded to the initial call stemming from the altercation inside the club. According to court records, he was arrested for disorderly conduct.[1] On September 21, the assistant state attorney decided not to officially file the information. Hopsin later commented on the case, referring to the cop as a racist.[51]

Views on drugs and alcohol

Hopsin is against drug and alcohol usage, and has criticized how mainstream entertainers promote usage of drugs and alcohol to youth. In some of his tracks, such as "Nocturnal Rainbows," he emphasizes his dislike for drugs. Hopsin has stated that he tries to be a hip hop musician who can instill positive influences in people who listen to his music.[6][54]